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Literary and historical activities in North Carolina, 1900-1905, Vol. 1

214 LiTERAEY AXD HiSTOKICAL ACTIVITIES
Carolina's independence of Great Britain was acknowledged.
But I can not resist the temptation of adding a few more
words about the men and customs of that day.
The old colonists were a sturdy and substantial race of
men, not the mimic courtiers so finely pictured in the his-torical
novels dealing with that time. They had their vir-tues
and they had their vices, as men always have had and
always will have. They were not devoid of ability as legis-lators,
and j)ossessed a practical knowledge of the needs of
the colony. Personally they were bold, fearless, and inde-pendent,
prompt to answer a call for their services in the
field, and at times too forward in a personal quarrel. At the
period of which I write there were places in jS^orth Caro-lina,
particularly in the extreme east, where could be found
commodious houses, churches, schools, and private libraries,
together with what were then considered the luxuries of life.
But when some of the bolder spirits of that time pushed
westward and set up new homes in what is now the center
of the State, they had more serious problems to confront
than those to which they had been accustomed. The early
pioneers of TTake County knew more about blazing paths
through the primeval forests by which they were surrounded
than they knew about winding through the intricate mazes
of a minuet. Great houses, servants, and fine apparel form
no part of the equipment of a backwoodsman. Even so we
find it in the Gospel of St. Luke that when the multitude
sought St. John the Baptist, it was asked of them: "Wliat
went ye out into the wilderness for to see ?
" * '^ A
man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gor-geously
apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts."
So might an old colonist in Wake Coimty describe the locality
where his lot was cast, not as a place of soft raiment and deli-cate
living, but a land—
"Where thoughts, and tongues, and hands, are bold and free,
And friends will find a welcome, foes a grave;
And where none kneel, save when to heaven they pray—
Nor even then. iniU'ss in thoir own way."

214 LiTERAEY AXD HiSTOKICAL ACTIVITIES
Carolina's independence of Great Britain was acknowledged.
But I can not resist the temptation of adding a few more
words about the men and customs of that day.
The old colonists were a sturdy and substantial race of
men, not the mimic courtiers so finely pictured in the his-torical
novels dealing with that time. They had their vir-tues
and they had their vices, as men always have had and
always will have. They were not devoid of ability as legis-lators,
and j)ossessed a practical knowledge of the needs of
the colony. Personally they were bold, fearless, and inde-pendent,
prompt to answer a call for their services in the
field, and at times too forward in a personal quarrel. At the
period of which I write there were places in jS^orth Caro-lina,
particularly in the extreme east, where could be found
commodious houses, churches, schools, and private libraries,
together with what were then considered the luxuries of life.
But when some of the bolder spirits of that time pushed
westward and set up new homes in what is now the center
of the State, they had more serious problems to confront
than those to which they had been accustomed. The early
pioneers of TTake County knew more about blazing paths
through the primeval forests by which they were surrounded
than they knew about winding through the intricate mazes
of a minuet. Great houses, servants, and fine apparel form
no part of the equipment of a backwoodsman. Even so we
find it in the Gospel of St. Luke that when the multitude
sought St. John the Baptist, it was asked of them: "Wliat
went ye out into the wilderness for to see ?
" * '^ A
man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gor-geously
apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts."
So might an old colonist in Wake Coimty describe the locality
where his lot was cast, not as a place of soft raiment and deli-cate
living, but a land—
"Where thoughts, and tongues, and hands, are bold and free,
And friends will find a welcome, foes a grave;
And where none kneel, save when to heaven they pray—
Nor even then. iniU'ss in thoir own way."